Who Will Uber & Lyft Put Out of Business

I just returned from Las Vegas where I spent 3 nights in a great city. On Friday morning we had a tennis match at Bally’s so my wife and I plus our friends grabbed a taxi from the Encore Hotel. It seems no matter where in the world you are taxi drivers tend to be alike. This driver had no change at 10:55 AM.

The result, he got a $4 tip because I gave him $15.00 for an $11 ride. He was happy but I decided this is the last time I will use a taxi if Uber is available.

Taxi drivers across the world tend to come from the same cloth. Often protected by government bureaucracy. Too many are dishonest. This driver used the old taxi scam. “I have NO change”.

I decided to start using Uber (10 times) and then for my last 2 trips Lyft. Both use an app where you can rate the driver. Scam artists get flushed out fast with these two firms because you can rate the driver. Uber does not allow for tips. It is very fast. Typical wait time was 3 minutes once I booked the driver. I always knew the price. I received an email after each ride allowing me to see the payment and the ability to rate the driver.

Over the next few years, taxis will fade in favor of firms like Uber, Lyft and Gett. I find taxi drivers across the world have trouble with honesty. I am sure there are many honest drivers but the risk of trying to find one is difficult when a more reliable system is in place with more integrity.

I asked each driver how long they had been driving. They averaged from 2-14 months. All liked working for their firm. Some drove for both Uber and Lyft. The caliber of driver was much higher. I think taxi firms tend to get the bottom of the barrel.

Customer Service has so many parts to it. Integrity, honesty, speed, price, cleanliness of the car, type of car, ability of driver to communicate. I would rate the typical taxi driver on a 1-10 scale maybe a “2.” Uber and Lyft a “9.” I would not want to own a taxi company. It’s going away just like the Yellow Pages and Blockbuster did. As I always say…”Never under estimate the value of awesome service”.